Two of the biggest topics Congress needs to tackle are the budget and health care, Rep. Gary Palmer said.

Palmer addressed a crowd of more than 100 people during a chamber sponsored "Eggs and Issues" breakfast at the Hyatt Regency on Feb. 21. The breakfast was co-sponsored by the Greater Shelby, Homewood, Mountain Brook, Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Montevallo and South Shelby Chambers of Commerce. As a member of the House Budget Committee, Palmer said he aims to overcome multiple tax and debt issues the government faces. Health care, however, ended up being a large portion of the conversation, in part due to audience questions.

“I had a discussion with a couple of ladies who practice medicine in Homewood, and contrary to what a lot of people are being told, we do have a plan,” Palmer said. “The problem is we’ve got multiple plans. There’s 241 Republicans in the House and 194 Democrats, and everybody’s got their own ideas.”

Palmer said there are plans on how to fix issues with health care, but rather than implement a plan and change it later, they hope to talk through and implement a complete plan.

“Rather than rush through this, I think we’re pulling our folks together. We’re getting around the table and we’re figuring out how to do this incrementally,” he said. “And I assure you that we have zero intention of leaving anybody uninsured.”

Palmer added that he believes Congress can come up with a plan that provides insurance to individuals with pre-existing conditions, to those who are unable to pay, to young people and that creates a marketplace that allows health insurance companies to thrive. Other factors in a potential replacement health care plan include portability of insurance, meaning employees could take it with them after leaving a job, and creating a market that can cross state lines.

Palmer said he thinks the Affordable Care Act is “collapsing under its own weight,” though he acknowledged there were ACA supporters at the breakfast. He said young people not purchasing healthcare is hurting ACA, and proposed instituting health savings accounts that may be more viable for young people.

“We’ve got some criticism that we haven’t acted quickly enough,” Palmer said. “When you’re talking about reforming a program that’s this big quick, that’s not the way to go about it.”

Alan Swindall, who works with a church-affiliated nonprofit that provides for students to go to college debt-free, asked Palmer how a new health care plan would help some of the students they work with. They purchase healthcare through the ACA for students who have aged out of the foster care system and asked if Palmer would address how those cases would be addressed in future plans.

Palmer said he did not know how Swindall’s plan would be covered, but the students would probably be covered by a safety net.

“I don’t know the specifics of your plan and how they’re covered right now,” Palmer said.

Swindall would be able to buy insurance and have more options on types of insurance, Palmer said.

Another woman, who said she is retired, has chronic health conditions and her husband owns a small business, said she was worried about what her insurance could look like without ACA.

“I already pay $900 a month for health insurance, which is really high on such a limited budget, but I understand that, and I have somewhat decent coverage,” she said. “I know that’s allowing me not to be denied because of any pre-existing condition. So I worry about a high-risk pool, me being put in that.”

A health savings account is also not practical, she said, and she exceeds the income threshold to receive subsidies.

“I’m very fearful for people like me,” she said, “caught in the middle, not wishing to return to the work world.”

There are bound to be “cracks in the wall” in anything you do, Palmer said, including in working out health care.

“You can break this down into all these little, specific pockets, and everybody’s got a situation that’s different from everybody else,” he said. “If you do that, you can’t see the forest for the trees.”

Budget

In regard to the budget, Palmer said there is a need to reduce the debt ratio and tax gap, which is more than $400 billion and getting wider. As a member of the Budget Committee, Palmer said he believes the debt ratio is something they can correct. In regard to taxes, Palmer said he suggests a flat tax or a consumption tax.

Wani Shaw, an owner of Magic City Sweet Ice in Homewood, said as small business owners she and her husband likely pay more in taxes than large companies. She asked Palmer, in regard to tax revenue that is lost from companies or individuals that do not pay taxes, if he would push for President Donald Trump to release his tax returns.

“We have the leader of our country who has not paid his fair share of taxes,” she said. “Are you going to push for him to show his tax return, to see how much he is paying in taxes since we are paying taxes here? We are paying taxes because we want our firefighters and our police officers and our schools to be well-funded … If he’s not paying, can he pay his fair share as an American citizen?”

Shaw’s comments were met with applause from some individuals in the audience.

“I understand he’s under an audit right now,” Palmer said, a response that received groans from some members of the audience. “If you want to hear the answer, the answer is I’m not going to push because that’s not a big issue. I think he’s taken advantage of the tax code, and the tax code needs to be revised.”

Palmer added that Trump has said once the audit is over, he will release his taxes and if he has done something wrong he will be held accountable.

“But I don’t know if you understand this or not, but the president is immune from any prosecution as long as they’re in office,” Palmer said. “That’s the Constitution. The only way you can prosecute a president is to first impeach them. And if he’s committed an impeachable offense, then someone needs to start that process.”

Following the breakfast, Shaw said she was not satisfied with Palmer’s answer.

“He almost said that it was OK for everybody else to manage to evade paying taxes if you can,” she said. “The main question is, as an American citizen, you want to protect our country, however, we want to be able to provide for other citizens to also benefit. This is one of the reasons we start businesses.”

For her, having the country’s leader evade taxes raises the question of how that leader can be followed and what message that sends to other people. Sometimes it is tempting to work around taxes, Shaw said, but she does not do that with her business because she wants to continue to support the community. Rather than cheat the system, Shaw said they look at how they can give back in the following year to potentially get tax deductions while helping the community.

“He should be neutral,” Shaw said of Palmer. “Pretty much the answer I got from him was, ‘It’s OK to cheat on your taxes.'”

Also following the breakfast, Bo Bohannon with Legal Shield said he was satisfied with Palmer’s overall answers and performance.

“Congressman Palmer is a very intelligent man, and he does a great job,” Bohannon said, but added that the conversation focused too much on health care and those who asked questions focused too much on individual circumstances.

Instead of healthcare, Bohannon said he wishes there had been a discussion on immigration.

“I’m one of the guilty parties because I’ve hired illegals because they’re good workers, they show up on time. You have to make them stop work,” he said.

Bohannon said he worked to make one worker, who had never been in trouble, a legal citizen and faced continual roadblocks.

“We need to have a way for them to get legal, and we need to have a way to get those that are here, that are part of our community, to get legal,” he said of individuals who have been illegally in the country for several years. “They want to be legal. …That was not brought up today, and I think it’s a lot more important right now.”

Palmer is set to host a town hall meeting at Hoover City Hall on Saturday, Feb. 25 starting at 9 a.m.